Week of 30 August
1. The façade of our new head office begins to take shape (Belgium)
The first prefabricated façade unit of our future headquarters has arrived, paving the way for the distinctive aluminium-and-concrete exterior of our new office building. Over the coming months, our colleagues at Vanhout will assemble these precision-made elements one by one, gradually revealing the building's architectural identity. Each unit measures around 4.5 metres high and 2 metres wide. It also weighs roughly one tonne, about the same as a large adult female walrus. It’s an exciting milestone, as this is the moment when the project will start to show its final face. A big thank you to everyone contributing to this next phase.
We look forward to following the transformation and sharing more news about our future home.
2. Colleague Brian wins top Building People Award (Australia)
Congrats to our colleague Brian Hayes from BESIX Watpac, who has been named Supreme Building People Awards winner by Building Institute Aotearoa in Auckland! The recognition reflects his leadership on One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch, one of the country's most significant recent construction projects. But this award is about far more than delivering a stadium. Together with his team, Brian helped bring more than 110 subcontractors together and supported partnerships with universities, cadet programmes and apprenticeships, creating opportunities for more than 90 trainees to develop their skills on the project. Great projects leave a legacy not only in the built environment, but also in the people who help create them.
Congratulations to Brian and to all colleagues who bring teams together around autonomy, belonging and competence every day.
3. Former church begins a remarkable second life (Belgium)
Sacred glass catching the morning light. Stonework shaped by generations. A bell tower watching over the neighbourhood. Living at Chantecler will be unlike any ordinary residential development. In Uccle, the Chantecler project is transforming the former Saint-Joseph church into thirteen apartments and an underground car park, while carefully preserving the features that give the building its identity: its façade, narthex and bell tower. For our colleagues at Wust, it is a challenge that is as architectural as it is technical, bringing together neo-Gothic heritage and contemporary engineering. Behind the scaffolding, progress is clearly visible. The parking structure is complete, the ground-floor columns and walls have been finished, and the beams are steadily taking shape.
A heartfelt thank you to all the teams helping write this new chapter.
4. A new chapter opens at the heart of Riga (Latvia)
For many people, a station is far more than a place to catch a train. It is where journeys begin, where friends meet, and where a city welcomes its visitors. Last week, a delegation including Colette Taquet, the Ambassador of Belgium to Sweden and Latvia and Nic De Roeck, Managing Director BESIX Europe, celebrated the completion of the main construction works on the southern section of Riga Central Station, together with the adjacent public square and passenger platforms. The photos capture an important milestone for a transport hub that serves as one of Riga's busiest meeting places. While further railway infrastructure works remain ahead before the station reaches its full operational potential, the transformation is already clearly visible.
Our project enters now a new phase, with our teams focusing on the final handover of the station due by the end of 2026 and the restart of the rail works.
